The Off-Colored Officer - Gifts From the Aughties (Pt.3)


Here's the third installment to the series...

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Release date: April 23, 2002
Label: Nonesuch

For a while, this could have achieved what Radiohead did with In Rainbows six years later - earmarking the future format for music. Although it was only streamed live and not made available as a download, and for a brief moment before they could find a label willing to release it in physical format. Surprising indeed when as it turns out Reprise Records was the one who refused to release it in the first place because Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is by far still is Wilco's finest record ever. This is not the most important record for the past century - it is the most important record for the whole of Nonesuch's imprint.

The Streets - Original Pirate Material
Release date: May 25, 2002
Label: Locked On

It was a very short phenomenon UK Garage is but Mike Skinner's debut will long be remembered as the finest record ever released for that particular music style.

Beck - Sea Change
Release date: September 23, 2002
Label: Geffen

It's a totally dramatic album which opens up with a crisp, autumnal acoustic line and Beck Hansen singing: "Put your hands on the wheel/Let the golden age begins". That line really sums up the whole feel of the album - it's a revolution, it's a withdrawal, it's a sea change. Gone are the ironic lyrics and replaced with simpler, straight-from-the-heart honest musings penned from the pained heart of a man who had just gone through a break-up. Plus, "Guess I'm Doing Fine" is (among) the saddest song ever written.

Kanye West - The College Dropout
Release date: February 10, 2004
Label: Roc-A-Fella

Rolling Stone named the album the tenth best album of the 2000s decade. So Kanye West was actually some kind of a genius before this after all. He also won two Grammy in 2005 but nah, that's not important.

Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Release date: April 20, 2004
Label: Domino Records

Allmusic applauded Franz Ferdinand as being the more rewarding and exciting band than the current crop of Garage Rock/Post Punk revivalists. Which includes the most "The" band of them all: The Strokes, and The White Stripes. This album was listed in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die book. It won this Scottish band the coveted 2004 Mercury Music Prize Award, which the alumnus member includes Radiohead, PJ Harvey, and Elbow.

Radiohead - In Rainbows
Release date: October 10, 2007
Label: -

Forget about the accolades Radiohead got from the press with this album. Forget about the achievements in terms of sales figure or general acceptance from the public. This album is among the most important album of the previous decade, and could be the most important for the coming decade, all for the simple fact that it was a glimpse into the future of the acceptable format for albums: digital. Because it shows that the current generation are ready to embrace a whole new format for a music record. If they can manage to sell more than a million record through internet download, why not everyone else? Metallica, in their infamous showdown with Napster users, was sadly fighting for a wrong cause because, as much as they were correct about copyright infringement and protection, they were wrong for fighting against the internet. Nobody would have predicted this, not even Nostradamus, but the internet nowadays have become the single most powerful tool for music marketing. What Radiohead have achieved with In Rainbows is basically a really sarcastic, huge middle finger to Metallica because by embracing the internet, and not fighting against it, they got a handsome reward in return.

The Off-colored Officer - Gifts From the Aughties (Pt.2)


I read a newspaper yesterday and in one of the many articles featured, one in particular caught my attention which was about the last decade. The writer wrote that the English language has hit a wall in its incapability to come up with a name for that particular decade. I mean, we've had the 70's, the 80's, and the 90's. So what about the 00's? That was exactly the question raised by the writer. There has been a number of suggestions on what would be the best and most appropriate name, and among few of them:
1) The New Millenium - it's too Dean Koontz-y
2) The Singles - reminds me of cheese (Kraft Singles)
3) The Aughts - a cheap, one-album-wonder The Pretenders' imitator band
4) The Naughties - a better, more well-known Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine's imitator band
5) The Zeroes - sounds utterly hopeless
6) The 00's - dangerously looks too similar with a pair of boob
As you could have probably guessed so, none of the suggestions work. Thus, it is with great irony though for me to celebrate the death of the failed decade with a feature on some of the most important album ever released during the Aughts. We have started with Badly Drawn Boy; so now, here's the second part...

Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
Release date: May 22, 2000
Label: Aftermath

It's a milestone in cursing and moaning. Sure, we've had loads of Hip Hop record all the way back to the 80's, and some of them have been real good like Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. However, during mid to late 90's Hip Hop went through a disgraceful fall thanks to rappers (or so) like Puff Daddy, Ma$e, DMX, and the whole Bad Boy Records ensemble. So, the year 2000 HAS to be the year where it makes a "comeback". And a comeback it does made - all totally pissed off and whining about the cruel injustice that had befallen on the defenseless little dude called Hip Hop (or Mr. Mathers himself, in which case is a pussy).

Outkast - Stankonia
Release date: October 31, 2000
Label: LaFace/Arista

This album made number 359 in the 2003 edition of Rolling Stones' 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It also received an honorable mention in 2006 in Time magazine. It was one of the most diversified Hip Hop album by two of the most creative and innovative musician today. And it has "Ms. Jackson".

The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Release date: July 3, 2001
Label: Sympathy for the Record

The Strokes may have been the band that popularized the Garage Rock revival movement but that is because they are a fashionable band - they are a fashion icon. The Jack and Meg duo is the anti-thesis of Julian Casablancas and co. They are not the most fashionable, they do not have mass MTV appeal, they are not the darling of the media at the height of the revival, but they made one of the most honest-to-goodness fun-filled Garage Rock album of all time. "Fell in Love With a Girl", though clocking at a very brief one minute plus, is more the party tune in oppose to "Last Nite", which is a late night, groggy-headed, personal recollection musing after a wild night out.

The Strokes - Is This It
Release date: August 27, 2001
Label: RCA

Alas, The White Stripes may have been the most "The" band of them all but one simple fact remains: The Strokes made the revival. They didn't start it, they made it happen.

Jay-Z - The Blueprint
Release date: September 11, 2001
Label: Roc-A-Fella

How good was this album? Well, for the simple matter of fact that Jay-Z went on to release a further two albums all as a continuation of this album speaks volume. It also made a total number of eleven appearances in various lists of greatest album ever made. Plus, Jay-Z has been struggling ever since to release a record that surpasses this one Hell of a blueprint. All of his later works has been, at best, patchy.

Incubus - Morning View
Release date: October 23, 2001
Label: Epic/Immortal

Even with this album making it into the list, I am still of the opinion that S.C.I.E.N.C.E. is still Incubus' best album so far, irregardless of the fact that they sound like a copycat Red Hot Chili Peppers rip-off in that album. It's a proper rocker. What I am tempted to say about this album is that it marks the complete departure of the band from Hard Rock to Soft Rock - like shifting from listening to Metallica to listening to Aqua. Like changing from working out at the gym every fortnight to attending Cake Baking Class every Thursday. But as a result of that, apart from forever being ingrained in my psyche that they have turned to a bunch of pussies, Incubus have become a class act. And that is the best option of all the available evolution options. (Are you reading this Limp Bizkit?)

The Off-colored Officer - Gifts From the Aughties (Pt.1)


I read a newspaper yesterday and in one of the many articles featured, one in particular caught my attention which was about the last decade. The writer wrote that the English language has hit a wall in its incapability to come up with a name for that particular decade. I mean, we've had the 70's, the 80's, and the 90's. So what about the 00's? That was exactly the question raised by the writer. There has been a number of suggestions on what would be the best and most appropriate name, and among few of them:
1) The New Millenium - it's too Dean Koontz-y
2) The Singles - reminds me of cheese (Kraft Singles)
3) The Aughts - a cheap, one-album-wonder The Pretenders' imitator band
4) The Naughties - a better, more well-known Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine's imitator band
5) The Zeroes - sounds utterly hopeless
6) The 00's - dangerously looks too similar with a pair of boob
As you could have probably guessed so, none of the suggestions work. Thus, it is with great irony though for me to celebrate the death of the failed decade with a feature on some of the most important album ever released during the Aughts. Starting with...

Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of Bewilderbeast
Release date: June 26, 2000
Label: XL Recording

I guess it would be very easy for me to begin this feature with Radiohead's Kid A, already the single most important record of the Aughts. It is kind of obvious where did the idea for this feature came from so I thought I better save it for later and instead wrote on something less obvious. Something that perhaps not many people realize it but that's the fact nevertheless. Badly Drawn Boy is essentially a vehicle for one-man-show, play-all use-all, where-available, where-fitting Damon Gough. He make, wrote, and sang some of the most delightful, fun, occasionally weird, uncompromising, occasionally beautiful, and occasionally impromptu songs that man has ever listened to.

The sole reason why BDB's debut album, The Hour of Bewilderbeast deserves the recognition as the most important album of the last decade is the same with how BDB's music has essentially 'reconfigured' the term singer-songwriter. I'm not sure the term 'reconfigured' is the most appropriate but that's the only word that my brain is capable of producing right now. What was traditionally associated with the term singer-songwriter is the image of a troubadour: usually unwashed for several weeks, reeks of alcohol and sweat and blood and tears, faded shirt and jeans, and holding a guitar while face pointing towards somewhere vague in a deep-in-thought pose. Singer-songwriter's music are usually a highly personal recollection of the singer's experience with drugs/alcohol abuse/failed romantic relationship and how he/she dealt with it. They are choke full of emotion. But then BDB came along.

A singer-songwriter is no longer a stinking, heartbroken, lonely hobo with a guitar and lots of songs in their head. A singer-songwriter now, according to BDB, is a highly civilized member of the society who has a lot of money at his/her disposal and is making/writing songs because he/she can do it. So they are able to throw every single musical instrument that their hand can reach into a single composition. Gone are the stark soundscape of a broken heart and replaced with a spectacular orgasmic concoction of equal genuine songcraftmanship and insanity. A singer-songwriter nowadays is now, in practice, a full blown strings ensemble. No I meant to say in theory.

What The Hour of Bewilderbeast has achieved that merits its status as "the most important" lies within the heart of the record. It may be a tad too long a record (18 tracks altogether), and that all the songs in the album don't seem to slot in nicely to make it a cohesive unit. But then exactly in that chaos and perplexing weirdness that makes the album a true gem. Because as with Damon Gough himself, Badly Drawn Boy is as a whole a representation of the 'do as I please' mantra. The same goes with the album - it sounds and feels like the album was made purposely to sound and feel like it was made with no purpose at all. Like it was made not as a statement of the singer's artistic craft, but as a statement of the singer's artistic freedom.

As we'll move along this feature in coming weeks with more important albums of the decade, we will be able to see how artistic freedom has become the go-to mantra for many artists/bands. How artistic freedom has shaped the music that we've listened to in the last decade. Because the Aughts was all about individuals standing out from the rest. Because the Aughts was the year of Facebook and Twitter - it was the decade of 'me'. The Hour of Bewilderbeast is an outstanding record, and an outstanding example of how the 'me' culture has shaped the music as well. The 'me' culture resents itself of having any purpose, so long as it stands out from the rest, a lot of people pay attention, and that's that.

The album, in practice, is a bewildering collection of nonsensical musings that is at odds with each other. It is beautiful and mesmerizing because of how fun and childish the album feels. It is an outstanding piece of art because the way the album was engineered, it becomes a collage and not a pile of incomprehensible garbage. It is important for the decade because it shows how music of the 'me' decade should be.

The Off-colored Officer - The Year-End (Usual) Feature


As usual, since 2009 is about to leave us, and thank God for that, it is only natural for just about every people on Earth to come up with a list of the best that 2009 had crapped out on humanity. Since this blog (err I mean my column in this blog) is about music, here's what you would have expected anyway. No drum roll thank you.

Best Album
Mastodon - Crack the Skye (March 24/Reprise Records)
Totally expected it to win the coveted title of the Best-est album of the year. It is one Hell of a juggernaut an album this. I have said this many times and still I'm going to repeat the same thing again here. This album is a stone grinder, for human. It is so God Almighty powerful, it's like being hit in your face with a steel container fully loaded with bricks while the lorry that is pulling it along is on fire. There is no other album of the entire year that is as awesome as this one. Yeayeaargh!!!

Best Song
Pesawat - Rasional Emosional
The local underground scene has really flourished since OAG first did the crossover thing with their mainstream-oriented, radio-friendly album entitled Opera Radhi-o Friendly. Since that paradigm shift, everyone within the underground scene realized that it is the language of their song that is the barrier that prevents their music from receiving wide acknowledgment. So ironically, thanks to the ever genius and talented visionary Radhi, we now have the pleasure of having Pesawat on mainstream radio. Their first single, Mirage, was really catchy and introduced to the mass this talented young band. The second single (or was it third?), Rasional Emosional, however, was the one that caught my ears. It is my all-time best song to sing along with.

Best New Talent
Zee Avi
Sorry Pa'an. The large sidekick to Yuna with a frantic facial hair might find this a bit frustrating but I'm sorry mate, Zee Avi is still the best. Yuna might have been reaching out to international audiences as well, like Zee Avi. But what differs between the two female singer-songwriter is that Zee Avi's materials are on the sunnier side of the day. Yuna is on the most part brooding and too serious. I have had enough of the darker stuff. I just literally learned how to laugh this year. But all the best for the final of Anugerah Juara Lagu.

Best Band to Emerge in the Local Scene But Then Imploded Too Early
They Will Kill Us All
Well the ending wasn't all too tragic actually. The band is still around, but only with a different front person. Yes, front person because the energetic and frankly amazing Fizul has been replaced with some female singer whom I cannot care to check out what's her name. Maybe it is still too early to write them off but TWKUA without their charismatic former front man feels a bit unfinished. At first I couldn't understand Pa'an's constant raving about the band. But after seeing them live, I finally understood what is it about TWKUA that is so, err, grabbing. It's Fizul. (Is that his correct name by the way?)

Best Freaky Artist
Lady Gaga
The all-time holder for this title is none other than the songstress from Iceland, Bjork. But for this year, I've got to hand it to Lady Gaga. Outrageous fashion sense, outrageous hairdo, and outrageously amazing stage presence, the Gaganess has it all. Delicious disco number helps a lot.

Best Band to Have Improved Since They First Came About
The Times
They really have got over OAG. And that's good.

Best Band That Should Really Be Performing Live in Malaysia
The Flaming Lips
The year 2009 has seen a number of international stars/bands/artists coming to Malaysia to perform live, especially Mogwai, in January, at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, which I went to. Not the biggest fan of Mogwai but my word it was amazing. Next year we will be having Mono (the Japanese soft post rock band) and Kings of Convenience, which is a definite 'must go'. So, Kuala Lumpur is slowly becoming a cool destination for really cool bands, barring one: The Flaming Lips. Every music critic ever alive reckoned that they are the band that everyone should see live before we die. I bought it. They HAVE to come to Malaysia.

Best Album That Turns Out to Be Crap
Muse - The Resistance (14 September/Warner Bros)
This one is not just crap. It turns out to be a humongous crap equivalent with that Oasis of the Sea cruiser ship. Black Holes and Revelation, their last album, is not a blip in the band's illustrious career. It has now manifested itself into a malignant cancer. I don't know - it is something about Matthew Bellamy (sort of) abandoning the guitar for a complete string ensemble that seems a little weird and un-Muse like. The reason Radiohead can do so (abandoning guitar altogether) is because their music, at the beginning, always has that empty space where anyone can manipulate and make it un-rock. Muse, for the first three albums, has always been a full on straight rock band. And they should always remain so. As for Silverchair - they have a perfect excuse because Daniel Johns have always seem a little mental. When they made Neon Ballroom, people say that they are going through a 'difficult' phase. Muse, when they made Black Holes, people say that they are going through a 'lost with no direction' phase. It's a big shame.